Ludwig van Beethoven, Skizzenblatt zur Klaviersonate op. 106, 4. Satz, Autograph, Fragment

A sketch leaf for the "Hammerklavier" Sonata

Here you can see a sketch leaf for the Piano Sonata op. 106. Beethoven composed the "Grosse Sonate für das Hammer-Klavier" in 1817 and 1818. The autograph score must have been completed by January 1819, as Beethoven was already talking to Ferdinand Ries in London about an engraver's model at this time. The first sketches for the "Hammerklavier" Sonata date from November/December 1817. Most of the remaining drafts reflect Beethoven's work on the fourth movement (only eight of the 44 leaves contain sketches for the first three movements). The sketches for op. 106 are mainly on loose single leaves, few of them in sketchbooks (a sketchbook for op. 106, the so-called Boldrini Sketchbook, was described in the nineteenth century but has disappeared). These leaves are very heterogeneous and as far as the composition of the paper is concerned cannot be assigned to a particular miscellany. The leaf shown here is a fragment, a quarter of a larger single leaf, with sketches for the fourth movement. (J.R.)